The Sassi and the Park of the rupestrian churches of Matera

Crag, quarry, crypt, cave are the keywords if you want to venture into the extraordinary maze that is the Sassi of Matera. In a natural environment, where water streams and weather have dug ravines, gorges, canyons and dizzy precipices into the crumbling rocks of the Lucana side of Murgia, people chose to live in caves to cope with the need to have a shelter and a home, to protect themselves from weather, to defend themselves from enemies or raiders. This is a perfect example of the way humans adapted to the natural environment, because in this way they could make the most of the local geomorphology and space. Humans lived in extraordinary harmony with the wilderness and turned the natural caves into their homes. Starting from the top of the ravine, eventually renamed Civita, the underground dwellings spread out unevenly, first scattered in groups, following the layers of soft calcarenite rock. Caves have a plain shape with one room, a rectangular layout and a vaulted ceiling. Over time, the prehistoric choice of living in a cave crystallised into Matera’s distinctive form of dwelling, strong and unchangeable, of outstanding cultural and anthropological relevance. No two caves are alike, in size, development and aspect, they follow and cut into the shapes of Sassi and eventually become the backbone of the buildings that are built on top, as settlements that develop both underground and above ground: whenever the rooms dug into the crag can hold the weight of the upper floors, while more layers are built on top of the rocks. In Matera, more than anywhere else in Italy, the houses merge and blur into the landscape. The houses and the ravines blend into each other, both structurally and in the materials. The walls, roofs, floors are made in the same rocks the underground rooms have been dug out of, so they look materially and chromatically colours in their shades of white and grey.

Matera’s signature appearance plays with contrasts of chaos and harmony. The tangle of streets, alleys, arches and terraces of the old town, where all features are connected with each other in weird, sinuous overlays, resembles an archetypal maze. At least until the dawn of the Modern age, the urban development of Matera did not follow any plan, nor any rational design. The houses at the Sassi were built to meet the local families’ needs with traditional empirical, techniques, with no concern for historical artistic styles or aesthetics. Nevertheless, the result was outstandingly harmonious and sublime. Medieval travellers who visited the town compared it to a star-studded sky. The town’s look came into its own in the Middle Ages, when Matera consisted of the Civita, the dizzy ravine on the rocky spur above, and the two settlements of Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano at the sides. Nowadays, the Sassi are separated from the new town, with its plain, middle-class 19^th– and 20^th-century architectures.

With its over 150 rock churches, often decorated with frescoes or bas-reliefs, Matera is the repository of an outstanding wealth of sacred art that embodies all the historical and cultural seasons it has gone through. The cave-dwelling tradition meant that the places of worship had to adapt to the underground world too. Often, the churches are nave-less or have two naves or one nave and two aisles; sometimes, they are entirely dug into the ground, sometimes they have an added façade, but all of them are as widespread in the area as in the little country villages or along the ways that connect the farmland to town. Churches, monasteries, sanctuaries come in a multitude of styles, from different ages and of different origins. The first rock churches had been influenced by the medieval monastic culture since the VIII century. Latin influences sit next to Greek and Eastern features, as Matera was inhabited by many different populations – Lombard, Normans, Byzantines, Swabians, Angevins – who left their mark on the local art and religion. In the early Middle Ages, especially in the VII-VIII century, when Matera was annexed to the Lombard Duchy of Benevento, Benedictine monks settled in and around Matera, bringing with them the Latin iconography of monastic Christianity. In the Middle Ages, the town was run through by Byzantine-inspired religious cultures (IX-X century): hermits and anchorites fled war in the East and found the perfect place in Matera’s plateau for praying and living life in solitude. The monks dug cells, made reservoirs, turned the rocks into plain but very charming churches, their walls engraved with Greco-Oriental religious features. The Parco Archeologico Storico Naturale delle Chiese Rupestri del Materano or Parco della Murgia Materana is scattered all over the Matera side of Murgia and guards an extraordinary landscape dotted with rock churches and prehistoric settlements, a landscape that is the live soul and the historical proof of the rock-dwelling culture of the Mediterranean regions. The city’s most noteworthy churches are Madonna dell’Idris, Convicinio di Sant’Antonio, Chiesa di Santa Lucia alla Malve at Sasso Caveoso; Chiesa di Sant’Agostino and Chiesa di San Pietro Barisano at Sasso Barisano. The Cathedral and Madonna delle Virtù and San Nicola dei Greci at Civita. Cripta di San Falcione, Chiesa di San Vito, Madonna della Croce, Madonna dei Derelitti, Madonna delle Vergini, Madonna di Monte Verde are out of town.

In prehistoric times, the settlements used to be scattered in small groups, preferably on the ravine, so they could be easily defended and overlooked the surroundings. There are not enough records about Greek and Roman times to find any urban feature in Matera’s settlement, and the houses were probably still “scattered” about, even if they had contacts with the coastal towns and the trades along the roads to Apulia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area experienced poverty and isolation, and the locals went back to live on the ravine to defend themselves in the troubled times of the invasions. In the Middle Ages (VI-XIV century), Matera took on its distinctive, unusual appearance. In the VII century, it was already ruled by the Lombard Duchy of Benevento. In the IX century, Matera was involved in fights between the Lombard, the Byzantines and the Saracens vying for Southern Italy, but the Greek part of the population put down roots. In the XI century, the Normans began to occupy Southern Italy, and Matera too was annexed as a feudal estate; monasticism became widespread, religious communities grew, and the town began to expand, with new monasteries and churches (XI-XIII century). In the XII century, walls were built around the ravine, with a Norman castle within, which was then demolished in the mid-15^th century, while other monuments such as the Monastery of S. Eustachio and the Cathedral began to be built at the dawn of the XIII century, when Matera became an episcopal see. In the XIII century, the Sassi, split into neighbourhoods (pittagi) around the places of worship, began to be used as houses; the Civita became the most important holy area in town. Registries and notarial deeds mention sales and leases of crypts, wells and reservoirs by the church boards. Between the XIV and the XV century, Matera was taken over by the Kingdom of Naples and established itself as a città demaniale, a city ruled by the King of Aragon. However in those years the town happened to temporarily lose its privileged status as a città demaniale and became a feudal county. Matera had to redeem its independence by paying large sums to the Crown. The XV and XVI centuries saw the local community get stronger under the oligarchic rule of the local families. The expansion of the local crafts went hand in hand with the local people’s increasing involvement in the rule of the town. Such social change is reflected in the layout of Piazza Maggiore, or Piazza del Sedile, which became a political and administrative centre; there stood the Sedile, i.e. the town hall or the university, the Governor’s palace and the Court. In the XVII century, the town experienced an economic recession, as a consequence of heavy taxation, and political decay, as the ruling families fought with other and the Church owned lots of properties and land. In the 17^th century, the town started to grow out of the Sassi, in the attempt to find easier, larger, flatter land. 1663 marked a turning point, with the opening of the Royal Court, the Regia Udienza di Basilicata, in Matera, which therefore became an administrative centre with jurisdiction over a vast area. The city started to thrive again, with the new middle classes, public servants and military personnel coming to live there. The high classes, that had traditionally played a key political role, became even stronger, while the rest of the population was increasingly confined to farming and breeding; trade lost momentum. In the XVIII century, the town started to sprawl out at Piano, where the new middle-classes built their houses, while the poorest residents kept living at Sassi. This created deep social divisions between the Sassi and Piano, which got worse over the centuries. The palaces and monumental buildings owned by the clergy and by the local noble families rose in the main streets and squares of the new neighbourhoods at the Piano, while the poorest people lived in the caves at Sassi, often in poor hygienic conditions. The landowning system and the great wealth of the Church reduced the working classes to subsistence levels, at the margins of political and civilian life. A bloody revolt broke out by the end of the century (1799) but it was not strong enough to achieve any political power. In the nineteenth century, Matera went through difficult times, as its economy and population shrunk, when the Regia Udienza di Basilicata (1806) and the Court, reopened in 1862, were relocated to Potenza. The town lost its administrative jurisdiction over the region, and so did the middle classes. The promised redistribution of land fell victim of the local potentates, so that only few families managed to receive public allotments, though they did not have the money to start any profitable farming business. The high classes, the clergy, the big landowners were separated from the large masses of poor labourers, shepherds, farmers who lived in rented houses and with their large families in the caves at Sassi. Several riots, even very violent ones, broke out. In the twentieth century, the settlement at Piano became more and more of a lay town, as the properties of the religious orders were taken back by the state and used for civil services, for instance the Convent of Riformati was converted into a hospital, the Seminary into a high school, the Monastery of Annunziata into the Court. The increasingly bourgeois town at Piano tried to take its distance from and deny the existence of the town at Sassi. The centuries-old problems of the Sassi, such as overcrowding, poor hygiene, poverty, went on well into the twentieth century. The Sassi became a ‘national question’, a paradigm of the problems of Southern Italy and were widely discussed by the national Parliament, with Alcide De Gasperi and Palmiro Togliatti.

In the 1950s, the state issued a law for the urban redevelopment and economic, social and cultural revival of Matera that could begin to fix the town’s weaknesses. Act no. 619 of May 17^th 1952 marked a turning point, as it triggered cross-disciplinary surveys, debates and projects with international professionals: sociologists, anthropologists, city planners, environmental scientists, economists. New neighbourhoods, districts and suburban settlements were built to reduce pressure on the Sassi, the infrastructure was improved, projects were put in place to restore and promote the monumental heritage and the settlements at Sassi. However, the law failed to meet all its targets, and in the 1960s many families were still living in poor conditions in the old neighbourhoods at Sassi, which were so run down they could collapse any minute. Everyone rallied to restore and promote the Sassi and give decent houses to the residents. Matera’s inclusion in the List of World Heritage sites in 1993 marked a turning point in the life of the town and in the intricate process for the protection, promotion and exploration of the City of Stone.

The Crypt of the Original Sin stands on the wall of the ravine at Piacciano. For a long time, it had been used by shepherds and sheep, as a shelter; now, it has been entirely restored and can be visited. It has a simple rectangular layout with three niches on the left. The Crypt is decorated with a cycle of paintings that is a X- or XI-century masterpiece, deeply influenced by the Lombard painting tradition of Benevento. It is known as the Sistine Chapel of the rock churches.

The church was built in the IX century and is one of the oldest in Matera. It is a Byzantine-influenced nave-less rock church. Small portions of the original frescoed surfaces are still visible today, anyway the painted cycle featured the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, a biblical event associated with Candlemas, the day candles are blessed. The group of caves and niches dug around the church was one of the many pecchiare, or apiaries, that were widespread in Murgia and Sassi till the XIX century. The beehives were put in the niches, protected from the rain, the cold northern winds and the extreme summer heat; the bees produced honey and wax, with which the candles were made.

Discovered by Domenico Ridola, an archaeologist, the Neolithic settlement of Murgia Timone is a typical example of prehistoric settlements in the Matera side of Murgia. The settlement was protected by an 8-shaped ditch and covered 20,000 square metres. There were holes inside, in which the piles of the huts were planted, and other holes to store the food; fragments of graffiti painted pottery and flint and obsidian implements were found too. The caves of Matera had been lived in or used as burial grounds since the Palaeolithic age and were regularly used over the centuries by the shepherds to keep their sheep or as storage. One such cave is the Grotta dei Pipistrelli, the Bat Cave. It is just south of Matera, on the right wall of the ravine, in the midst of a tight network of many other holes; it was discovered by Domenico Ridola who explored it in the 1870s. Those centuries-old findings were well-worn; however, several types of carved stone tips and animal bones were found, which helped get an insight of prehistoric wildlife, when the local climate was colder.

A doctor by profession, a member of the Senate, an amateur archaeologist. He was born from a local high-middle class family, graduated in medicine from the University of Naples, continued his education in stimulating scientific circles, for instance in Turin and Vienna. Back in Matera to work as a doctor, he regularly conducted archaeological campaigns in and around Matera and discovered important sites, such as Grotta dei Pipistrelli (Bat Cave), the nearby Grotta Funeraria (Funeral Cave), a few miles from Matera, and the necropolis of Timmari. The National Archaeological Museum that bears his name was opened in 1911 to display the wide archaeological collection he had amassed over the years. Domenico Ridola unearthed remains of prehistoric life in the Matera side of Murgia, dating back to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages.

A world-class artist and writer, for his antifascist attitude he was exiled to Basilicata, where he spent two years in touch with peasant culture and local traditions. In his most famous book, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ stopped at Eboli) (1945), inspired by his exile in Basilicata, he described the intricacies and peculiarities of Matera, its people and its surroundings. In the Sixties, he was one of the intellectuals who supported the enforcement of laws and policies to restore the Sassi and the ancient neighbourhoods and exposed the way the local population had been neglected and left in poverty.

He was appointed archbishop of Acerenza and Matera by Pope Gregory XVI in 1835. He is mentioned in the history of Matera for his liberal attitude and innovative spirit, as well as a patron of public works. He upgraded the town’s educational facilities, which had always been under the aegis of the Church, and extended the seminary; he restored the Cathedral and tried to improve the material conditions of the population living at Sassi by funding waterworks to bring clean water to Sasso Caveoso. The waterworks consisted of a complex network of communicating underground canals and reservoirs that brought up spring water and was still in use in the mid-20^th century.

►  “Le case trovansi l’una al di sopra dell’altra, di maniera che i tetti delle più basse formano la strada davanti alle più alte. I soli camini escon fuori e di dietro non c’è altro, fuorchè la roccia, non essendovi murato, se non porte, finestre e cose simili, ciò che produce un effetto veramente strano”.

Philipe Gérard (XVI secolo)

(crf.  Ricordi del soggiorno di Ph. Gérard di Vigneulles nel Regno di Napoli, al tempo di Ferrante I d’Aragona, in “Archivio Storico Italiano”, Appendice, IX, 1853, pp. 223-237)

 

►  “L’edificii dela Città sono al più palacci fabricati di petra bianca quadrata et grotti cavati di petra biancha atta a fabricare et cossì li borghi et tanto l’attitudine de la petra ove se cavani lle grutte che in una di quelle si vedeno cammere, cantine, stalle, cisterne, fosse da tenere grano et altre biade, in sino a luochi di tener galline./ Et perchè la Città et burghi non sono posti a terra piana et precise lli borghi se vedeno lle chiese ove sono sepelliti li morti stare di sopra lli grutti dove alcuni habitano et cossì se dice che in Matera li morti stanno sopra lli vivi”.

Eustachio Verricelli, Cronica de la Città di Matera nel Regno di Napoli (1595-1598), a cura di M. Moliterni, C. Motta, M. Padula, BMG Matera

►  “La città è di aspetto curiosissimo, vien situata in tre valli profonde, nelle quali, con artificio, e sulla pietra nativa, ed asciutta, seggono le chiese sopra le case, e quelle pendono sotto a queste, condondendo i vivi e Morti la stanza. I lumi notturni la fan parere un cielo disteso, e stellato […]”.

Giovan Battista Pacichelli, Del Regno di Napoli in prospettiva diviso in dodici provincie, Napoli, 1703, pp. 266-268

►  “Arrivai a Matera verso le undici del mattino. Avevo letto nella guida che è una città pittoresca, che merita di essere visitata, che c’è un museo di arte antica e delle curiose abitazioni trogloditi che. […] Allontanatami un poco dalla stazione, arrivai a una strada, che da un solo lato era fiancheggiata da vecchie case, e dall’altro costeggiava un precipizio. In quel precipizio è Matera. La forma di quel burrone era strana; come quella di due mezzi imbuti affiancati, separati da un piccolo sperone e riuniti in basso in un apice comune, dove si vedeva, di lassù, una chiesa bianca, Santa Maria de Idris, che pareva ficcata nella terra. Questi coni rovesciati, questi imbuti, si chiamano Sassi. Hanno la forma con cui, a scuola, immaginavamo l’inferno di Dante, in quello stretto spazio tra le facciate e il declivio passano le strade, e sono insieme pavimenti per chi esce dalle abitazioni di sopra e tetti per quelle di sotto. Alzando gli occhi vidi finalmente apparire, come un muro obliquo, tutta Matera. È davvero una città bellissima, pittoresca e impressionante”.

Carlo Levi, Cristo si è fermato ad Eboli, Torino, Einaudi, 1945

►  “Matera: una città straordinaria. Sembra che ci si affacci a un sottosuolo scoperchiato e abitato, che

nell’insieme forma una città maggiore. Una tale adunanza di semicarvenicoli, in cui si prolunga senza soluzione di continuità l’esistenza dalla preistoria, non ha paragoni in Europa, ed è tra i paesaggi italiani che generano più stupore.”

Guido Piovene, Viaggio in Italia, 1957

The Lombard kingdom boosted the spreading and development of Benedictine monastic communities all over the peninsula, and this happened in Matera too, when it was annexed to the Duchy of Benevento. The frescoes in the famous Crypt of the Original Sin are testament to the deep influence of the Benedictine tradition of Benevento on the area of Matera. It seems in 774 the monumental group of Santa Sofia in Benevento (a UNESCO serial site, Longobards in Italy. Places of Power) included the Church of Santa Maria and San Michele in Matera. The place-names at Sasso Barisano take inspiration from the Lombard population living there, for instance in the churches of San Vito, San Martino, San Lorenzo dei Lombardi.

As home to prehistoric archaeological sites, the Site of Matera can be linked to other Italian World Heritage sites: the pile dwellings of the Alps and the rocky necropolises of Pantalica. The area in and around Matera is full of prehistoric remains, for instance the Neolithic settlements in which small communities of farmers and breeders lived in huts, protected by a ditch dug into the rock and a dry wall. In the Bronze Age, the Neolithic settlement of Murgia Timone was used as a burial ground, with tombe a grotticella, oven-shaped rock-cut tombs, which resemble those at Pantalica.

R. Cavalluzzo, G. Latronico, Guida artistica dei sassi di Matera, Edizioni Giannatelli, 2014

R. Demetrio, Matera. Forma et imago urbis, Giuseppe Barile, 2014

C.D. Fonseca, R. Demetrio, G. Guadagno, Matera, Laterza, Bari, 1998

C.D. Fonseca, Civiltà delle grotte. Mezzogiorno rupestre, Napoli,  1988

P. Laureano, Giardini di pietra. I Sassi di Matera e la civiltà mediterranea, Bollati Boringhieri, 2012

L. Rota, Matera storia di una città, Edizioni Giannatelli, 2011

M. Tommaselli, Il parco della Murgia materana. Guida all’escursionismo, Edizioni Giannatelli, 2002

whc.unesco.org/en/list/670

www.unesco.beniculturali.it

www.comune.matera.it/

www.parcomurgia.it/

www.archeobasilicata.beniculturali.it

www.sbap.basilicata.beniculturali.it

Crag, quarry, crypt, cave are the keywords if you want to venture into the extraordinary maze that is the Sassi of Matera. In a natural environment, where water streams and weather have dug ravines, gorges, canyons and dizzy precipices into the crumbling rocks of the Lucana side of Murgia, people chose to live in caves to cope with the need to have a shelter and a home, to protect themselves from weather, to defend themselves from enemies or raiders. This is a perfect example of the way humans adapted to the natural environment, because in this way they could make the most of the local geomorphology and space. Humans lived in extraordinary harmony with the wilderness and turned the natural caves into their homes. Starting from the top of the ravine, eventually renamed Civita, the underground dwellings spread out unevenly, first scattered in groups, following the layers of soft calcarenite rock. Caves have a plain shape with one room, a rectangular layout and a vaulted ceiling. Over time, the prehistoric choice of living in a cave crystallised into Matera’s distinctive form of dwelling, strong and unchangeable, of outstanding cultural and anthropological relevance. No two caves are alike, in size, development and aspect, they follow and cut into the shapes of Sassi and eventually become the backbone of the buildings that are built on top, as settlements that develop both underground and above ground: whenever the rooms dug into the crag can hold the weight of the upper floors, while more layers are built on top of the rocks. In Matera, more than anywhere else in Italy, the houses merge and blur into the landscape. The houses and the ravines blend into each other, both structurally and in the materials. The walls, roofs, floors are made in the same rocks the underground rooms have been dug out of, so they look materially and chromatically colours in their shades of white and grey.

Matera’s signature appearance plays with contrasts of chaos and harmony. The tangle of streets, alleys, arches and terraces of the old town, where all features are connected with each other in weird, sinuous overlays, resembles an archetypal maze. At least until the dawn of the Modern age, the urban development of Matera did not follow any plan, nor any rational design. The houses at the Sassi were built to meet the local families’ needs with traditional empirical, techniques, with no concern for historical artistic styles or aesthetics. Nevertheless, the result was outstandingly harmonious and sublime. Medieval travellers who visited the town compared it to a star-studded sky. The town’s look came into its own in the Middle Ages, when Matera consisted of the Civita, the dizzy ravine on the rocky spur above, and the two settlements of Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano at the sides.

With its over 150 rock churches, often decorated with frescoes or bas-reliefs, Matera is the repository of an outstanding wealth of sacred art that embodies all the historical and cultural seasons it has gone through. The cave-dwelling tradition meant that the places of worship had to adapt to the underground world too. Often, the churches are nave-less or have two naves or one nave and two aisles; sometimes, they are entirely dug into the ground, sometimes they have an added façade, but all of them are as widespread in the area as in the little country villages or along the ways that connect the farmland to town. Churches, monasteries, sanctuaries come in a multitude of styles, from different ages and of different origins. The first rock churches had been influenced by the medieval monastic culture since the VIII century. Latin influences sit next to Greek and Eastern features, as Matera was inhabited by many different populations – Lombard, Normans, Byzantines, Swabians, Angevins – who left their mark on the local art and religion. In the early Middle Ages, especially in the VII-VIII century, when Matera was annexed to the Lombard Duchy of Benevento, Benedictine monks settled in and around Matera, bringing with them the Latin iconography of monastic Christianity. In the Middle Ages, the town was run through by Byzantine-inspired religious cultures (IX-X century): hermits and anchorites fled war in the East and found the perfect place in Matera’s plateau for praying and living life in solitude. The monks dug cells, made reservoirs, turned the rocks into plain but very charming churches, their walls engraved with Greco-Oriental religious features. The Parco Archeologico Storico Naturale delle Chiese Rupestri del Materano or Parco della Murgia Materana is scattered all over the Matera side of Murgia and guards an extraordinary landscape dotted with rock churches and prehistoric settlements, a landscape that is the live soul and the historical proof of the rock-dwelling culture of the Mediterranean regions.

In prehistoric times, the settlements used to be scattered in small groups, preferably on the ravine, so they could be easily defended and overlooked the surroundings. There are not enough records about Greek and Roman times to find any urban feature in Matera’s settlement, and the houses were probably still “scattered” about, even if they had contacts with the coastal towns and the trades along the roads to Apulia. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area experienced poverty and isolation, and the locals went back to live on the ravine to defend themselves in the troubled times of the invasions. In the Middle Ages (VI-XIV century), Matera took on its distinctive, unusual appearance. In the VII century, it was already ruled by the Lombard Duchy of Benevento. In the IX century, Matera was involved in fights between the Lombard, the Byzantines and the Saracens vying for Southern Italy, but the Greek part of the population put down roots. In the XI century, the Normans began to occupy Southern Italy, and Matera too was annexed as a feudal estate; monasticism became widespread, religious communities grew, and the town began to expand, with new monasteries and churches (XI-XIII century). In the XII century, walls were built around the ravine, with a Norman castle within, which was then demolished in the mid-15^th century, while other monuments such as the Monastery of S. Eustachio and the Cathedral began to be built at the dawn of the XIII century, when Matera became an episcopal see. In the XIII century, the Sassi, split into neighbourhoods (pittagi) around the places of worship, began to be used as houses; the Civita became the most important holy area in town. Registries and notarial deeds mention sales and leases of crypts, wells and reservoirs by the church boards. Between the XIV and the XV century, Matera was taken over by the Kingdom of Naples and established itself as a città demaniale, a city ruled by the King of Aragon. However in those years the town happened to temporarily lose its privileged status as a città demaniale. The XV and XVI centuries saw the local community get stronger under the oligarchic rule of the local families. The expansion of the local crafts went hand in hand with the local people’s increasing involvement in the rule of the town. In the XVII century, the town experienced an economic recession, as a consequence of heavy taxation, and political decay, as the ruling families fought with other and the Church owned lots of properties and land. In the 17^th century, the town started to grow out of the Sassi, in the attempt to find easier, larger, flatter land. 1663 marked a turning point, with the opening of the Royal Court, the Regia Udienza di Basilicata, in Matera, which therefore became an administrative centre with jurisdiction over a vast area. In the XVIII century, the town started to sprawl out at Piano, where the new middle-classes built their houses, while the poorest residents kept living at Sassi. This created deep social divisions between the Sassi and Piano, which got worse over the centuries. In the nineteenth century, Matera went through difficult times, as its economy and population shrunk. In the twentieth century, the increasingly bourgeois town at Piano tried to take its distance from and deny the existence of the town at Sassi. The centuries-old problems of the Sassi, such as overcrowding, poor hygiene, poverty, went on well into the twentieth century. The Sassi became a ‘national question’, a paradigm of the problems of Southern Italy and were widely discussed by the national Parliament, with Alcide De Gasperi and Palmiro Togliatti.

In the 1950s, the state issued a law for the urban redevelopment and economic, social and cultural revival of Matera that could begin to fix the town’s weaknesses. Act no. 619 of May 17^th 1952 marked a turning point, as it triggered cross-disciplinary surveys, debates and projects with international professionals: sociologists, anthropologists, city planners, environmental scientists, economists. New neighbourhoods, districts and suburban settlements were built to reduce pressure on the Sassi, the infrastructure was improved, projects were put in place to restore and promote the monumental heritage and the settlements at Sassi. However, the law failed to meet all its targets, and in the 1960s many families were still living in poor conditions in the old neighbourhoods at Sassi, which were so run down they could collapse any minute. Everyone rallied to restore and promote the Sassi and give decent houses to the residents. Matera’s inclusion in the List of World Heritage sites in 1993 marked a turning point in the life of the town and in the intricate process for the protection, promotion and exploration of the City of Stone.

The Crypt of the Original Sin stands on the wall of the ravine at Piacciano. For a long time, it had been used by shepherds and sheep, as a shelter; now, it has been entirely restored and can be visited. It has a simple rectangular layout with three niches on the left. The Crypt is decorated with a cycle of paintings that is a X- or XI-century masterpiece, deeply influenced by the Lombard painting tradition of Benevento. It is known as the Sistine Chapel of the rock churches.

The church was built in the IX century and is one of the oldest in Matera. It is a Byzantine-influenced nave-less rock church. Small portions of the original frescoed surfaces are still visible today, anyway the painted cycle featured the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, a biblical event associated with Candlemas, the day candles are blessed. The group of caves and niches dug around the church was one of the many pecchiare, or apiaries, that were widespread in Murgia and Sassi till the XIX century. The beehives were put in the niches, protected from the rain, the cold northern winds and the extreme summer heat; the bees produced honey and wax, with which the candles were made.

Discovered by Domenico Ridola, an archaeologist, the Neolithic settlement of Murgia Timone is a typical example of prehistoric settlements in the Matera side of Murgia. The settlement was protected by an 8-shaped ditch and covered 20,000 square metres. There were holes inside, in which the piles of the huts were planted, and other holes to store the food; fragments of graffiti painted pottery and flint and obsidian implements were found too. The caves of Matera had been lived in or used as burial grounds since the Palaeolithic age and were regularly used over the centuries by the shepherds to keep their sheep or as storage. One such cave is the Grotta dei Pipistrelli, the Bat Cave. It is just south of Matera, on the right wall of the ravine, in the midst of a tight network of many other holes; it was discovered by Domenico Ridola who explored it in the 1870s. Those centuries-old findings were well-worn; however, several types of carved stone tips and animal bones were found, which helped get an insight of prehistoric wildlife, when the local climate was colder.

A doctor by profession, a member of the Senate, an amateur archaeologist. He was born from a local high-middle class family, graduated in medicine from the University of Naples, continued his education in stimulating scientific circles, for instance in Turin and Vienna. Back in Matera to work as a doctor, he regularly conducted archaeological campaigns in and around Matera and discovered important sites, such as Grotta dei Pipistrelli (Bat Cave), the nearby Grotta Funeraria (Funeral Cave), a few miles from Matera, and the necropolis of Timmari. The National Archaeological Museum that bears his name was opened in 1911 to display the wide archaeological collection he had amassed over the years. Domenico Ridola unearthed remains of prehistoric life in the Matera side of Murgia, dating back to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages.

A world-class artist and writer, for his antifascist attitude he was exiled to Basilicata, where he spent two years in touch with peasant culture and local traditions. In his most famous book, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ stopped at Eboli) (1945), inspired by his exile in Basilicata, he described the intricacies and peculiarities of Matera, its people and its surroundings. In the Sixties, he was one of the intellectuals who supported the enforcement of laws and policies to restore the Sassi and the ancient neighbourhoods and exposed the way the local population had been neglected and left in poverty.

He was appointed archbishop of Acerenza and Matera by Pope Gregory XVI in 1835. He is mentioned in the history of Matera for his liberal attitude and innovative spirit, as well as a patron of public works. He upgraded the town’s educational facilities, which had always been under the aegis of the Church, and extended the seminary; he restored the Cathedral and tried to improve the material conditions of the population living at Sassi by funding waterworks to bring clean water to Sasso Caveoso. The waterworks consisted of a complex network of communicating underground canals and reservoirs that brought up spring water and was still in use in the mid-20^th century.

The Lombard kingdom boosted the spreading and development of Benedictine monastic communities all over the peninsula, and this happened in Matera too, when it was annexed to the Duchy of Benevento. The frescoes in the famous Crypt of the Original Sin are testament to the deep influence of the Benedictine tradition of Benevento on the area of Matera. It seems in 774 the monumental group of Santa Sofia in Benevento (a UNESCO serial site, Longobards in Italy. Places of Power) included the Church of Santa Maria and San Michele in Matera. The place-names at Sasso Barisano take inspiration from the Lombard population living there, for instance in the churches of San Vito, San Martino, San Lorenzo dei Lombardi.

As home to prehistoric archaeological sites, the Site of Matera can be linked to other Italian World Heritage sites: the pile dwellings of the Alps and the rocky necropolises of Pantalica. The area in and around Matera is full of prehistoric remains, for instance the Neolithic settlements in which small communities of farmers and breeders lived in huts, protected by a ditch dug into the rock and a dry wall. In the Bronze Age, the Neolithic settlement of Murgia Timone was used as a burial ground, with tombe a grotticella, oven-shaped rock-cut tombs, which resemble those at Pantalica.

Pliable, adj., that can be easily moulded, easily bent, supple, flexible. Usually said of metals.

Maze, noun, labyrinth, intricate network, tangle.

Ravine, noun, canyon, gorge, precipice; a deep, narrow gully, dug by a water stream; the walls of a ravine are sheer or very steep, and are rutted with the marks of the water that powerfully flows down here when it rains.

Hypogean, adj., underground, below the surface of the ground.

Orographic, adj., which concerns orography, the study of the reliefs of mountains.

Empirical, adj., based on experience, on practice.

Iconography, noun, study of images and representations of images, in connection with the historical context; collected representations of a subject.

Anchorite, noun, a religious person who lives alone and away from other people, intent on prayer and meditation.

Spring water, water from a spring.

Beehive, noun, a natural or man-made shelter for a bee colony.